Jordan down in FIFA rankings

AMMAN — Jordan went down 7 spots to 72nd in the FIFA rankings issued on Thursday. 

The national team is seventh among Asian Football Confederation (AFC) teams led by Iran, who held on to the top Asian spot at 34th, followed by Japan (48th), South Korea (53rd), Australia (56th), the UAE (63rd) and Uzbekistan (65th).

Saudi Arabia came eighth in Asia at 73rd, followed by Oman (79th) and China (92nd). 

FIFA top 10 rankings remained the same led by Spain followed by Germany, Argentina, Columbia, Portugal, Uruguay, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands and Brazil. 

During 2013, Jordan climbed 30 spots and ended the year at 65th place and fifth among AFC teams. 

Jordan was a step away from reaching the World Cup for the first time after playing world’s 6th ranked Uruguay in their intercontinental qualifying tie. 

The Kingdom lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. 

Jordan had never reached this far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers as of 1985.

Preparations 

The national football team started a training camp in Dubai on Thursday before resuming Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers in two weeks.

The team lately finished runners-up at the 8th West Asian Football Federation Championship in Doha where Jordan beat Bahrain 1-0 in the semis but lost to Qatar 2-0 in the final.

Head coach Hossam Hassan had to manage with a new line-up that included six U-22 players and new faces as players in Gulf clubs were not released.

Jordan is now second in Group A Asian Cup qualifiers and has technically qualified to Round 2 after they held Oman 0-0, tied Syria 1-1 and defeated Singapore 4-0.

They are now set to play Oman on January 31, Singapore on February 4 and Syria on March 5.